The Technical Communication Summit fosters industry-leading technical communication by stimulating information exchange, cultivating research, and serving as the primary source of education for professional technical communicators.

The 2017 Summit will be held 7-10 May at the Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor, Maryland. The theme is "Gain the Edge to Get Results."

The Summit is the technical communication conference to attend for professional growthand this years theme will help attendees "Gain the Edge to Get Results" through a myriad of educational opportunities. Education sessions should demonstrate an unexpected, advanced, or less traditional way of looking at or fixings a problem with tangible solutions. Attendees should feel inspired to stretch boundaries and achieve more and this theme can be applied to all sorts of topical areas, including content, project management, career paths, teamwork, business management, and more – the sky is the limit.

The conference committee is looking for sessions that produce surprising results, recommendations, or case studies from your experience that give the attendee specific ideas, lessons, processes, takeaways, or suggestions that they can take back to further their career or become more effective at work, allowing them to gain the edge to get results.

Who attends the Summit?

Our attendees are professional technical communicators at all levels, from beginners to seasoned veterans. This includes technical writers, editors, illustrators, managers, information designers, architects, content strategists, instructional designers, usability and user-centered design practitioners, researchers, professors, and students.

Who can submit a proposal?

Anyone with experience in the latest communication techniques, technologies, approaches, and solutions is invited to submit. You are not required to be an STC member to submit a proposal, but you are limited to a total of two session proposal submissions (presentation, training solution, or spotlight) and two pre-conference workshop submissions.

What is the Conference Committee looking for in a submission?

There are several types of sessions, so please consider the presentation type that best fits your topic and your presentation style.

We welcome and review all topics and ideas to create the most relevant and comprehensive program available. For the 2016 Summit, the following track areas were used to group similar proposal topics:

• Writing and Communication
• Design and Testing
• Career and Leadership
• Technology and Development

Don't forget to check out these tips for how to set your proposal apart from the rest. Submissions that are incomplete or missing information may be ruled ineligible or returned for re-submission.

How are proposals managed?

During the call, the proposals are given a quick review to make sure they are complete and meet the minimal requirements before review by the program team.

At the end of the call period, the proposals are grouped by related track area before being reviewed by the program track team. The track teams use a set of review criteria to analyze and score the proposals for sorting.

Review criteria examples:

• Is the topic timely and of interest to our attendees?
• Does the topic provide "ah ha" moments and tangible takeaways?
• Is the topic important for our industry?
• Does the title and abstract grab the reviewer's attention and make an immediate case for reading more about the session?
• Does the session proposal demonstrate a solid direction and purpose for the session?
• Is the proposal clear, concise, and well-written?

Once all submissions for a track have been reviewed, the track teams provide their recommendations to the Conference Committee Chair, Director of Education, and Program Manager for final consideration. This committee will meet in October to finalize session selections. In November the Society will notify submitters of their proposal status and whether their submission has been selected.

If you have any questions, please contact the Conference Committee (STCsummit@gmail.com) for more information.

Submit a Proposal